About the ACCESS model

The Australian Community Climate and Earth-System Simulator (ACCESS) weather models have been developed and tested
by research staff from the Bureau's Research & Development Branch and are based on the UK Meteorological Office's
Unified Model.
ACCESS output is available in map form or as gridded data products.

00Z run available 0325Z
06Z run available 0935Z
12Z run available 1525Z
18Z run available 2125Z

N.B. All runs available one hour earlier during the daylight saving period.

Views

Not applicable

Available Elements

Available as gridded data only

Model

ACCESS-TC

Version

APS1

Domain

3 relocatable domains

Resolution

0.11° (~12km)

Time Step and Duration

1 hourly to 72 hours (3 days)

Model Run Times and Typical Availability Times

Run on demand

Views

Not applicable

Available Elements

Available as gridded data only

Upper air charts are generally labelled with the pressure level in hectopascals (hPa), e.g. 500 hPa. The pressure decreases
as altitude increases. For instance, the 250 hPa level is higher than the 500 hPa level. For some fields there are
also charts representing the atmosphere 2 metres and 10 metres above the ground, and at the "gradient"
level which lies about 1000 metres above the earth's surface and is the level most representative of the air flow
in the lower atmosphere immediately above the layer affected by surface friction. This level is free of local wind
and topographic effects (such as sea breezes, downslope winds etc).

Some charts show geopotential height, which approximates the actual height of a pressure surface above mean sea-level.
Therefore, geopotential height contours on a particular map, e.g. 850 hPa, represent the height of that pressure
surface.

Charts showing precipitation represent the amount of rainfall in millimetres which is forecast to fall at the ground
over the preceding 3 or 6 hours. The period is shown in the chart heading as "3 hrly" or "6 hrly".